Taking Flight
by I'm In Like With You
Summary: Lanilyn embarks on her adventure in which she has romance, adventure   no duh! , epic fights, and countless quests to strive to be the best Dragon Rider ever! Oh god, that was corny. The story is better story than it sounds like, I promise.
1. 1: Dragon Hatching

**Hi, this is my third and final story for a while now so I can get a ways into the rest of my books. This is before the Fall of The Dragon Riders, so it's pretty old, even to Eragon. Let's get to it, shall we?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alagaesia, Galbatorix or anything else of Christopher Paolini's. And, although I really wish I was, I'm not even making a **_**penny **_**from this.**

* * *

I wake up to the sound of morning bells announcing we have roughly an hour before a big event. As I rub the sleep out of my eyes, I smile to myself as I remember that today is the day that Clai is coming. Rousing myself excitedly I quickly dress in a nice, summer dress and attempt to brush my hair. After a few minutes, I simply give up and look into my small vanity mirror. My hair still looks like Frankenstein's wife's worst nightmare, literally sticking up in all directions, my reddish, brown hair is a tangled mess. "One day," I mutter, "Two rats will nest in my hair and then I will be known as the Rat Lady!" Scowling at my reflection, I try my brush once more and end up leaving to seek my mother's advice on how to get a brush out of my hair.

"You really should start sleeping with your hair tied up, Lanilyn." She mutters while coaxing the brush through my tangled mane. My name is Lanilyn, if someone calls me anything else- unless they are a child-, I will be very mad at them. I don't say I'll kill them because the only weapon I can wield is a spear and at that I am but mediocre.

"I'll take that into consideration and pray to King Palancar that we will not lose so many hair-ties this time." I smirk. She chuckles, then I can _feel_ a crease forming on her brow as she works on a particularly tough tangle right under my left ear. My head has become hard and dull from our combined pulling out my hair so it has stopped hurting.

"So has Father already left?" I ask, and turn partially around, just in time to see her nod.

"Which means I don't want you to miss lunch with him." My mother threatens light-heartedly. Although she doesn't have any reason not to like the Dragon Riders, she's never wanted to be apart from me for the whole ten years that it will take to train me to be one, truthfully I don't want to be apart from her for ten years either, but I've always aspired to be the greatest Dragon Rider ever known to Alaglaesia. I shake my head no, and then the 9:30 bell rings.

"Mother, I'd better go soon, I don't want to miss Clai's entrance." She stops soon enough and I hurry out the door.

I walk into our circular town square (that's a joke among us) just a minute before the elf Clai and his black/purple/blue iridescent dragon, Pandora, fly in. I go to the 17-year-old section and sit in between Jaydon and Janya, twins and also my best friends. They both have ultra-platinum blonde and sparkling emerald green eyes, literally the opposite of me appearance-wise. They're also the most popular teenagers in school because they're parents are wealthy tailors; they also happen to be the nicest people- aside from my mother- that I know.

Jaydon jumps right off the bat and yelps: "Hey Lani!" He knows I hate that name but I have grown so used to it, I am able to ignore him like a misbehaving puppy. Janya is just able to settle Jaydon down when the sun blacks out.

Clai always makes entrance when coming in, and this time is just about his best yet; Pandora lines herself up to the sun in just a way that it blocks our entire city, then spirals down so that sunrays flash around all over. It's beautiful.

The rules for Dragon-Hatching (as we call it here) are pretty simple. Everybody eligible (ages 13-26) sit down, youngest to oldest, with two feet in between ages (Sometimes the line will stretch through-out the entire town-square). Clai rolls the egg in front of the 13-year-olds and each one of them touches it, you can't use magic while doing this because the way the dragon chooses you, is that it stops in front of you. When the egg stops, Clai does procedures to make sure you haven't held onto it, used magic on it, and lastly rolls it by you again for good measure; Dragon-Hatching is held once a year. Well, pretty simple, at least.

The younger children (10 or younger) start simultaneously screaming and laughing. By the time they realize what's really happening, they are in fits of giggles and screaming "Yay!" (**A/N: Did you know the computer thought I spelled**_** yay **_**wrong!)**

When Clai comes down, all the children swarm around Pandora, and we can tell that she's loving all the attention. Clai soon disengages himself and leaves Pandora with the crowd. "Hello wonderful children of tomorrow!" he chirps politely. I look at Jaydon and we roll our eyes- this is all a show for the 13-year-olds.

We are soon watching a blotchy red and orange female egg roll by. I think in my head, in the Ancient Language: _Good luck on your journey._ I learned that in the town's library and surprised my parents by telling Father that before he left to go fish in the morning, and they were very proud of me.

The morning goes by quickly and soon we're onto the last egg, a silvery, metallic, and white-dotted egg. "Our last egg until next year, and what a pretty one at that! A female born no more than four months ago!"

The egg rolls by the 13-year-olds. The egg rolls by the 14-year-olds. The egg rolls by the 15-year-olds. It rolls by the 16-year-olds. It rolls by everyone in the 17-year-olds until me. _Good luck on your- _I stop half way through my sentence as it slows to a stop in front of me.

My mouth hits the ground. Clai hurries over- with a speed only an elf or Dragon Rider could match- and inspects the scene. Somewhere in the back of my head, my instincts tell me to hold on for dear life, but I'm so dumbstruck that when Clai gives the egg a tug, it falls out of my grasp.

"Lovely!" He announces when he finishes. "What's your name, Miss?"

I force myself to shut my mouth and answer. "L-L-Lanilyn R-Rosaliesdaughter." I stutter.

"Well, will you stand by Benjamin Coltonsson, and then we will be on our way!" He instructs us merrily. As I stand by Benjamin, a 13-year-old I've seen walking around the school grounds, I see my mother leave the crowd. Benjamin gets to say good-bye to his family first, so I figure I have just about ten minutes until it's my turn. I practice my facial expressions the whole time and when it's my turn to say good bye to my mother, (Father's out fishing until early afternoon) my face is an impenetrable mask of no emotion. My mother walks in first and I can see she's been practicing the same thing.

"Hi honey," She greets me, and without anytime to spare she thrusts out a little bundle of thick hair ties. "You'll need them if you are to impress your masters." I nod and except them gratefully. Then she gives me a small pack of things to remember her by, a pair of dress shoes, (I've worn my everyday slippers here) a necklace and matching bracelet, and a small fairth of our family.

"Mother! I'm not going away forever! Just…" I think for a moment, "Just think of me at boarding school. I'll be back sooner than you'll realize and we can write letters every week! I will become the best Dragon Rider yet! When I come back I'll have my dragon fetch all the fish in the ocean and bring them back here and then we'll move into a huge mansion and live happily ever after!" I end up yelling at the end because by now I'm trying to convince myself at the same time.

She nods, but her impassive façade is slipping. "I-I know sweetie, but when you come back you won't be the same, sweet Lanilyn as before…" Another thought occurs to her- "And you'll be gone for ten _years!_ I don't know what I'll do without you and-" She begins sobbing into my shoulder and I start rubbing her back. "You could be attacked by Urgals!" She gasps suddenly. "Or _Kull!"_

"With another Dragon Rider by my side, we'd crush them in minutes!" I over-exaggerate. The guard calls my mother out and I walk her to the door and hug her one last time before Janya and Jaydon come in.

Jaydon- upon hearing my last statement- jumps right to it. "Kull? Urgals? _You'd _be the one crushed within minutes." Janya's moved beside me on the loveseat and I take the opportunity to lie my head on her lap, sobbing silently.

Janya calms me down by stroking my hair and murmuring praises in my ear like: "You _will_ be the greatest Dragon Rider ever."And: "You won't be gone long, we'll make sure everything's exactly the same."

Finally, Jaydon gets the hint and sobers, "Wow…you won't come back for another ten y-" I don't need another hint so I thrust my fist out in his general direction and hear a somewhat satisfying '_Oof!'_. (**A/N: OMG, how unlady-like! I want you to get the picture that they have a boyish relationship, as in fighting and stuff**)

The guard takes the hint and ushers them out of the room. As I'm sitting up, my last glimpse of them reveals Janya has been crying silently, too and Jaydon has tears forming in his eyes. My last thought before I'm whisked away to Pandora is _This can't be the last time I see them for the next…_I gulp _ten years._

* * *

**First Eragon fanfic! Please comment, review, flame harshly/strongly! If you don't like something, if you don't tell me it's never gonna change! If you love something, and you don't tell me I might decide against it and change it in the next chapter! These stories are about **_**US! **_**The **_**FANS! **_**So come on peeps! (Oh yeah, I could totally rock being a motivational speaker ****)**


	2. 2: Ileria

**Hi again! … Nothing to see here, move along, thank you.**

* * *

My mouth dry, I let myself be escorted down past the on lookers- who've made us a path about five feet wide and ten yards down- towards Pandora, Clai, and Benjamin. I can see Clai has taken an instant liking to Benjamin and they're chatting away.

"…Yes, you'll love it in Ellesmera and Ilirea." Clai finishes his last sentence and turns to me, where I've been wiping the tears away; "Well!" He puts on a cheery face and greets me. "Hello Lanilyn!"

My attempted smile must look like a grimace so he drops the topic and turns to Pandora, has a moment of private conversation in their heads and turns back. "Well… what are we all idling about for! You don't want your dragon to hatch in mid-flight!" And upon that, he hops up the foreleg of his dragon and sits on the wide, fancy saddle made for three of four people.

He made it look much easier than it actually was, because Benjamin takes a confident leap up her foreleg and slides back down on her slippery scales. It's so comical I almost laugh, but hold my tongue because of respect. While he is scrambling up, I look around the dragon and decide that the easiest place to climb up is, in fact, the foreleg. Once Benjamin finally gets up, I know the easiest place to put my hands and legs just from watching.

I jump as high as I can, hold tightly to one of the scales (it's hard to do because of her dark color, shifting hues and such), swing to one side and then the other, all the while climbing up slowly. Finally, I can grab hold of the saddle and pull myself up- which is difficult because of having no upper-body strength. Victorious, I move to an empty seat and sit there, smiling and also still kind of shaking from the exertion.

"Nicely done, both of you!" He congratulates us. Benjamin turns around- he got on before me and is therefore in front of me.

"How'd you get on so fast?"

"I watched you." I say simply. He raises an eyebrow and I explain: "You showed me where the key points to get up were by trial and error." His face scrunches up from knowing he was (for lack of a better word) used, but you can tell he understands.

After a while, a few conversations between Clai and Pandora privately, and a somewhat awkward silence between Benjamin and I, Clai interrupts the silence. "So have either of you decided on the name for your dragon?" The question caught me off guard, but Benjamin's obviously been pondering it for a while.

I see the purple-blue egg in my mind's eye as he answers: "Jarnunvosk?" (**A/N: For all you rabid fans, you know **_**exactly **_**where I'm going with this. If you don't, please don't ask! If you do, please don't blurt it out in the reviews!**)

"Good name, it must've taken you a while to decide." Clai observes, then turns to me. "Have you decided yet?"

I see _my _silver and white-dotted egg. My first thought is a name I saw in a history book at school. The dwarf-woman who first discovered silver, "Arianna." As soon as I say it, I can tell it's either the right name for her, or pretty darn close because the word flows over my tongue like water and feels… _right._

"Very good names indeed…" Clai purrs mysteriously. Before I can raise but an eyebrow, he turns around.

"You think my names nice enough?" Benjamin murmurs to me.

"Definitely. I can see your magnificent Jarnunvosk flying around the training arena." I gush; it's obviously a name he really likes.

He nods head happily, pleased with him and his name-making-up. I continue contemplate Arianna and the more I think about it, the more I like it.

Soon it's obvious my hair is becoming an annoyance, while also hurting my face with the constant wind whipping it around. I make short work of it, tying it into a pony-tail before it has time to deny my hands. Maybe it's the force of the wind blowing it backwards.

Towards early evening, Benjamin and me are becoming quite uncomfortable, I tell him to hold off telling Clai until it is close to unbearable, so we don't have to trouble him (this a hard feat to accomplish as we are all but three or four feet away from each other, but by a lot of stretching on Benjamin's part, I tell him in private- if Clai notices he doesn't say anything). Soon it's obvious it is, in fact, becoming quite unbearable. Benjamin clears his throat quietly and Clai looks backwards. "Ahem, Clai-elda, we're becoming a bit uncomfortable, is there perhaps a resting spot nearby? We wouldn't take but a moment."

"Ahh," Clai sighs, "We are around ten leagues in the sky so nothing is _nearby, _but we're coming close Ilirea. Could you wait… eh, another quarter of an hour?" Benjamin and I exchange a nod in the dimming light.

"Yes, we can wait that long, Clai-elda, thank you." I say respectively.

Pandora then flies so high, we're basking in the moon's bright light. I give a care-free laugh and lift my arms up, as my legs are tethered down to the saddle. Benjamin's eyes sparkle with wonder, like mine must be doing as well, for we're so close to the stars, it's like we can touch them. Benjamin laughs as well. "I can't wait until we can do this with our dragons!" We both laugh again.

Like promised, in a little over ten minutes, the bright city lights glow in our vision when Pandora breaks through what little cloud coverage there was. Benjamin and I give a little laugh of excitement again as we drop down suddenly. Pandora spirals down, going what must be a league or so per second.

My eyes are involuntarily tearing up from the drop and my mind equally fears for my life and believing this could just be the best festival ride in the whole of Alagaesia. The size of Iliria goes from a pleasant township to an almost too-large-to-comprehend with a single drop, and I'm estimating us to still be around five leagues away. "Wow!" I exclaim. "How large is Ilirea?"

"A rough estimate would be about a few hundred buildings in the center, a couple hundred in the middle ring, another few hundred houses in the outer ring, and about a thousand buildings and houses combined in the suburbs." Ben and I find each other's eyes filled with wonder and amazement. Not that we know at the time, but those "buildings" were really trees, but shaped into useable work and hope spaces.

Pandora glides down, giving us a miniature tour of the city. She breaks through my consciousness like a paring knife would butter, and I can feel all four of our minds intertwined in an open space. Ben and my minds are wide open, like the field behind my house, while Clai and Pandora's minds are closed off in some parts. Ben and I both feel -again- so much wonder and amazement at this, Clai must give us a few minutes to simply get used to it. _Now, this is the capitol building, we'll touch down and meet you're mentors here. _She glides over to another building, maybe a block away; _this is where you'll stay. _She proceeds to tell us where the training room is, the infirmary/nursery is, a wide park where we'll train our dragons, a huge outside pool, and a place where our dragons will feed.

_You'll have breakfast and dinner in your rooms or with friends, but you will nearly always have lunch with your master. But, your first meal will be at the Dining Hall, so you may get to know the other Young Riders._

Pandora, who is now very close to the buildings, alights on top of the Capitol Building, and we're helped off. Benjamin's and my legs are quite wobbly so we each have to lean on each other's shoulders. Clai tsk's at us when we're a few feet away. "Forgetting something?" Benjamin and I look at each other dumbfounded, how could we forget?  
"The eggs! Sorry Clai-elda, we're both very tired." And we hurried back to grab the jewel-like eggs out of Pandora's saddle bag.

_Okay, now… _Pandora showed us where we should go to find someone who could walk us to the nursery for dragons, the cafeteria, and lastly our rooms. Benjamin and I nodded our heads at each new piece of information.

We both bowed and said in unison "Yes, Pandora-elda."

We went down many a flight of stairs, until we came to the second level, and sure enough, there was a handsome, human man of maybe 45 or so greeting us.

"Hello, are you Kylie and Fredrik from Narda?" We both shook our heads no. "Then… Callum and Helen from Therinsford." We shook our heads no again. His face screws up comically, "Kieran and Hallie from Feinster?" We shake our heads no again. In a fake-exasperated voice he said, "Well blast it! Who are you two then!"

Giggling, I said "I'm Lanilynn Rosaliesdaughter we're from-"

Finishing my sentence Benjamin said: "Teirm. I'm Benjamin Coltonson."

"Hmm… you're a coordinated pair, aren't you?"

We look at each other and answer "No." in unison.

He looks at us doubtfully and shakes his head, "Well, I'm Tripp." Then he leads us to a door with marked with a clean, crisp sign saying: Nursery. We walk in, and there are hundreds of purple velvet cushions! A few are occupied by eggs of all different colors- such as a forest green, a deep red-maroon, sky blue, spring green, and many others! "Have you decided what to name your dragon yet?" He asks me, taking Arianna from my arms.

"Yes, Arianna." He nods in approval, mumbles a spell in the ancient language, and sets Arianna on a cushion. It becomes a milky white for a split second, then the words:

'_C'Nisi-Narrwn_

_Arianna_

Appear on the surface. He takes Jarnunvosk and repeats the process.

_Rowena-__Lutalo_

_Jarnunvosk_

"Now, are you two hungry?" We nod our heads enthusiastically. "Okay, follow me then." We follow him down a series of hallways, up a few flights of stairs, down another few series of hallways, and come to a room with a sign just like the nursery's but saying: Dining Hall.

Beginning to drool just a bit at the smell of succulently grilled root vegetables, artfully tossed salads, and huge platters of fruit, I hurry over with Benjamin to get plates and load up on whatever fits our fancy. After our plates are piled high with decadents fit for a king in Teirm, I tell Benjamin: "We should probably come back later for the rest. It'd be a pity if any of this fell to the floor." He nods at the truth of that sentence. We walk as quickly as our foods allow and soon are at a circular table by ourselves.

I take a bite of my mashed potatoes and have to stifle a moan. "Oh wow, this is the best food I've tasted in years!" And it is- fish is our main seller and after each day we have extra… A.K.A: dinner, tomorrow's breakfast, and ultimately lunch… day, after day, after day. We're lucky if I or my parents can snag some bread or potatoes.

"Mmm, agreed." He moans. We finish our little-plate feast and head back for dessert so soon, you would've thought that we hadn't eaten anything.

I go right to the dessert section and pick out the most beautiful slice of apple pie, a tart with fruits I can't name, and a bowl of various fruits, mixed with honey and sugar. Benjamin's plate looks to be similarly stuffed with cookies, caramel and taffy candies, and delicious-looking cobbler, which seems to be stuffed with exotic fruits that would never flourish in Teirm.

We take one look at each other's plates and take up our fathers' jobs: trading. "I'll give you a slice of my apple pie if I can have half a cookie."

"Agreed, but can I have a wedge of apple tart for a bit of cobbler?"

"Definitely." We stare down each other's plate again and decide without talking that Benjamin should keep his candies and I my honey berries. I see in my peripheral vision that Tripp is chuckling with another man here, most likely about us. We finish in record time again, and instead of my stomach hurting from all the rich food, I'm exhausted, even more so than before! I'd never known food made you tired, for I never had a meal larger than fish, bread, and a small sliver of white cake. It had been my birthday.

"I can't eat anymore, I'm too tired." Benjamin moans.

"Yes, let's go ask where to put our plates." Benjamin nods. We leave the table and walk over to Tripp. "Where should we put our plates Tripp-elda?" He looks at the man from before and they share another chuckle.

"You don't need to worry about that." The other man says and gestures towards our table. It's clean! Benjamin and I share a confused look. "They clean it off as soon as you leave the table.

"Well," Tripp says, "Let's get you two to a couple of nice, soft beds, shall we?" That prospect is so appealing I almost start drooling again. We walk to the fourth floor, into a door marked: First Year's Dormitory

"In you go," Tripp says, "Now, this is your common room; like your new living room- you can study, talk with friends, and relax here." There are a few people here, some sitting on couches, others playing jacks in the corner, and one more sitting on the windowsill, talking the a dragon whose color I believe is burgundy, but I'm not sure for the light has faded from the sky.

The girl who was sitting at the window- who I now realize as a woman and probably staff- walks over. "Hello! I'm Shateque… Hmm, are you Wren and Joseph from Kuasta?" She asks. It must be a game they play here, Who're-The-New-Children? Tripp smirks, knowing she's done the same thing as he- and probably hoping she'll do worse.

"No, Shateque-elda." I say.

What happens next makes Tripp's face drop. "Oh! Then you must be Benjamin and Lanilynn from Teirm!"

Benjamin and I are stifling giggles. "Yes, Miss." Benjamin gets out.

Shateque grins widely. "Who did Tripp think you were?"

"Kylie and Fredrik," I say.

"Callum and Helen," Benjamin tells her.

"And then Kieran and Hallie," I say lastly.

Shateque chuckles, "Well, if he talked to everyone he'd know that Kieran, Hallie, Kylie, and Fredrik have already been though." Tripp scowls.

"Well anyway, I'll be your Dormitory-Advisor; you can come to me for any question except an educational one." Benjamin and I nod. "Well, now all you need to know is where your beds are." She tells us cheerily, Benjamin and I exchange a relieved glance. "Tripp, you take Benjamin to his room and I'll worry about Lanilynn." With a smile the whole way, she shows me where my bed is, where my dresser is (and explains the no-stealing policy) I brought no clothes because they stock our training tunics, sleeping gowns, and formal dresses-, and lastly where other's beds are. "This is Hallie's bed. This will be Wren's bed. This is Gianna's bed- she was the only chosen one from Ceris. This is your bed. This is Kylie's, and lastly Helen's to-be bed. There are quite a few more girls, of course, but they're all older than you. You'll probably meet them sometime tomorrow." She advises.

"Thank you Shateque-elda." She nods happily in my saying 'elda', do not many people call her that?

"All my pleasure Lanilynn. Now, do you have any questions?"

"Two, actually: Where are all the other girls?" There was no-one else in the room except us.

"Mm, getting their bearings- walking around, meeting others. It's curfew right now for all the other people in the building, except for the first years."

"Don't you worry about people… getting in trouble?"

"Was that your second question?" She retorts quickly. I blush and nod 'no'. "Hmm, well it was a good one so I will answer it anyway. There are so many spells and wards on this place, if you all but picked up a- say a paint brush outside of class or something- alarms would go off and it'd vanish in your hands." She tells me. "Now, what was your second question?"

"Oh right, and why couldn't Tripp show us in here- wouldn't it save hassle?"

"There is a girl's only spell on that door and a boy's only spell on the other. Also, how would you like it if you were just drifting off to sleep, or _changing _even- if you thought you were all alone-, and two males walked in!" Okay, now I see her point.

"Well, I expect you'd like to do something of your own accord." She says, "So be off with you!"

I nod happily and decide to mingle with some others in the common room until Benjamin comes out. I spot a girl with honey colored hair watching the fire. "Umm, hello, I'm Lanilynn." She looks up with pretty blue eyes, and smiles widely.

"Hi! I'm Hallie!" She pipes up. "My dragon is teal, what's your color?"

"Silver. Have you decided what to call your dragon yet?" I ask.

"Sebastian! He's a boy, what's yours?"

"Arianna, she's a female." I've decided she's a bit loud for me. "I'm 17, how old are you?"

"Oh, I'm 13!" there is an awkward silence, so when Benjamin comes back in, I walk over to him gratefully.

"Hi,_ please_ tell me you are tired." I beg.

"You beat me to it. See you in the morning Lanilynn." I say good night too and we go to bed.

I am almost sprinting to get ready for bed, nightgown? Check. Teeth brushed? Check. Anything else I might need to worry about? Possibly. I re-do my hair into a tie and flop down in bed. Is there a spell on this, too? For, I'm out in less than ten seconds.

**WOW! Looooonnnnnggggg chapter! Anyway, the only thing I can think about to tell you now is that for the Ancient Language I will be translating into French (I'll explain what it means as well so no worries)**


End file.
